Wednesday, January 29, 2020 // The Statement
2B
Managing Statement Editor
Magdalena Mihaylova
Deputy Editors
Emily Stillman
Marisa Wright
Associate Editor
Reece Meyhoefer
Designers
Liz Bigham
Kate Glad
Copy Editors
Madison Gagne
Sadia Jiban
Photo Editor
Keemya Esmael
Editor in Chief
Elizabeth Lawrence
Managing Editor
Erin White
G
rowing
up in the late 2000s,
the best six days of the year
were when my American Girl
Magazine arrived in the mail. When I saw
it on the counter under a stack of bills and
advertisements, I ran up to my room and
carefully opened the table of contents like
it was precious candy. There was always a
free poster, a craft, a quiz, an advice col-
umn and a featured reader smiling on the
cover.
Many issues included interviews with
the cover girls, who earned their face
in print by volunteering at a commu-
nity garden, starting a jewelry business
or organizing a clothing drive. I dreamt
of being published in the magazine and
entered writing and photo contests to do
so, having photoshoots with my stuffed
animals and trying to fit the vocabulary
word “tchotchke” into a short story. I even
started a business making collars for Web-
kinz stuffed animals in hopes I’d become a
success story in the next issue.
Unsurprisingly, I spent more money on
my business cards and bracelet beads than
I made in actual revenue. Yet even though
I never found my face on the cover or my
story in the magazine, I set a foundation
for my future pursuits in photography,
writing and entrepreneurship. The maga-
zine undeniably shaped who I am today.
When I got older, I tried reading Girls’
Life, Teen Vogue and even Tiger Beat,
which stressed me out with its loud colors
and celebrity gossip. I read these maga-
zines for a few years, but I never cherished
the moments spent with their pages like I
did with American Girl Magazine. I guess
I just didn’t care about which $90 hand-
bag matches which $200 cheetah-printed
boots or if Maybelline mascara is less
clumpy than CoverGirl — I
didn’t even wear makeup or
care about clothes until I got
to college.
I recently discovered that
American Girl Magazine stopped
production in 2019. I had carelessly
thrown out my issues around the time of
high school graduation, but still searched
my room in hopes of finding them. After
no luck, I bought four 2009 issues on eBay.
I mourned the loss of the magazine not
because I wanted to try its recipe for “fruit
pizza” again, but because it represented a
world where regular girls — not celebri-
ties — graced the cover of a mainstream
magazine. It’s difficult to find anything
similar to American Girl Magazine today,
or even a magazine targeted at young girls
whose covers don’t advertise “does your
crush like you?” but rather “plan a spooky
party.”
Though the magazine is gone, the
American Girl brand still thrives through
their popular dolls. The franchise began
producing dolls in the 1980s, years before
the magazine began in 1992, and are now
accompanied by books that gave each
character a backstory. The dolls and their
stories have been applauded for their
diverse narratives that encompass how
the average young girl lived during a spe-
cific time period, which is a demographic
often left out of textbooks and elementary
school classes.
Historical characters included Addy,
an African-American girl who escaped
slavery; Kaya, a girl from the Nez Perce
tribe living before white colonization; and
Josefina, a Mexican girl living in Santa
Fe while it was still Mexican territory.
Recent dolls emphasize today’s diversity
more than historical narratives, exempli-
fied by Joss, the 2020 doll of the year who
is a surfer with a hearing aid. Customiz-
able “Truly Me” dolls are also available
with various skin tones, boy and girl gen-
ders and accessories such as an insulin
pump.
I had two historical dolls of my own,
Kirsten and Elizabeth, and loved their
books so much that I went on to also read
the other dolls’ stories. Much like the
magazine, the books teach girls to be clev-
er and powerful without focusing on the
presence of men. But owning the dolls is
undeniably a privilege, with the doll and
book alone costing upwards of $100, while
the magazine was more accessible at $20
for an annual subscription.
American Girl Magazine was important
not only for its accessibility but because it
was a separate entity from the products.
It wasn’t just another platform advertis-
ing the dolls, but a way to bridge the gap
between the dolls’ historical narratives
and modern narratives of girls doing good
work today. This is arguably needed more
than ever in an age where young girls are
more vulnerable to toxic pressures than
ever before.
As someone born between millennials
and Generation Z, my childhood was influ-
enced by the digital world, but not defined
by it. Today, girls from eight to 12 years old
spend around six hours a day with enter-
tainment media — and while my child-
hood entertainment meant Webkinz and
Club Penguin, today it means Instagram
and TikTok, where girls as young as 15 put
on makeup and tight clothing and perform
for followers.
What other options do they have? If a
young girl wants to read a girls-oriented
magazine, she must choose one with a
photoshopped celebrity on the cover often
littered with tips about how to be appeal-
ing to men. If she wants to make a DIY
craft, she will probably seek out a You-
Tube influencer to teach her, persuaded
by their “authenticity” when they are like-
ly also performing for social capital.
Of course, there is still good work
happening
for
girls’
empowerment
online: Teen Vogue now publishes politi-
cal articles in addition to content about
fashion and makeup, and Barbie releases
animated vlogs covering feminist topics
such as girls’ tendency to apologize more
than boys. Competitors of American Girl
are now trying to fill in the gaps in the
digital world.
Plus, American Girl still produces
informational content — many will
remember the books “The Care and Keep-
ing of You” which teaches girls about
their growing bodies and “A Smart Girl’s
Guide to Boys” which, despite becoming
a meme (as a conversation starter, it rec-
ommends “I wish they’d teach us more
about Vikings”), encourages curiosity and
equality in relationships. More recently,
the company released another guide to
the digital world about how to safely navi-
gate the Internet.
Yet, there is something deeply person-
al about a physical magazine that I wish
girls today could experience. There was
a sense that you were the only one read-
ing the issue and it was made for you spe-
cifically. It was sent to your house. You
owned it and the information in it. That
medium, in and of itself, was empower-
ing.
It is natural that American Girl is
changing as American girls are changing.
But while the instant gratification of the
Internet can jumpstart imagination with
information, young girls also don’t get
downtime in between ideas. Consump-
tion becomes more appealing than action:
When girls can stay in that media environ-
ment forever, they never have to sit back
and work with what they’re given before
the next issue arrives.
I am anxiously waiting for my own cop-
ies to arrive from eBay. When they do, I’ll
probably run to my room and pore over
every word. Maybe it will feel more pre-
cious than before, knowing once the print
issues are gone, all traces will be lost. But
even though the magazine faded away
before it could reach the girls of today
and tomorrow, I know they will be clever
enough to grow in the digital world.
In fact, if they are anything like the
American girls throughout the rest of his-
tory, I know they already are.
American girl needed American Girl Magazine
BY HANNAH BRAUER, STATEMENT COLUMNIST
American
statement
THE MICHIGAN DAILY | JANUARY 29, 2020
Girls